Blancpain GT Series Asia set for SRO’s trusted Balance of Performance
This year, SRO Motorsport Group’s world-renowned Balance of Performance regulations will be used across the Asian continent for the first time when Blancpain GT Series Asia’s inaugural season roars into life at Sepang International Circuit on April 8/9.
SRO’s BoP settings are already used for individual races in the region, such as the Motul Sepang 12 Hours, and for GT3 cars competing in Japan’s Super GT series and the Australian GT Championship. But 2017 will be the first time they’ll govern a pan-continental Asian GT3/GT4 category.
Balancing performance ensures cars of all shapes and sizes compete equally. But how does the process work, what sets SRO apart from others, and why does it matter so much to modern-day customer GT racing? Here, Blancpain GT Series Asia’s promoter reveals some of the history and secrets behind the science.
Background: the birth of GT3 and BoP SRO Motorsports Group has run and promoted domestic, regional and world GT championships and series for the past 25 years. It is internationally recognised as the sport’s leading authority on both the GT3 and GT4 categories it originally created and continues to administer around the globe.
However, that expertise wasn’t gained overnight. Instead, it has been learnt the hard way during a quarter-century of competition. Throughout that time it has shaped modern-day GT racing, the cornerstone of which remains SRO’s Balance of Performance regulations.
“We created GT3 at the end of 2005 with the aim of developing customer GT racing using everything SRO and the FIA had learnt over the previous decade,” says SRO founder and CEO Stephane Ratel. “The GT1 and GT2 categories we promoted had their place at the time, but one-make championships organised by individual manufacturers were also popular.
“The key was bringing cars together in a way that would allow different models and engineering concepts to race equally in a cost-effective way without sparking a development war, which inevitably drives up the price of competing and deters customers. Manufacturers and teams never want to lose an advantage but they understood that we would have to level the playing field by balancing their cars in order to create stability and for the business model to work long-term.”
Cars contesting the FIA GT3 European Championship’s debut season in 2006 were very different to those now racing around the world in various GT3 series. But, crucially, manufacturers embraced the concept, and continue to do so 10 years on - now in GT4 as well as GT3 - thanks to the Balance of Performance regulations pioneered by SRO and the FIA.
2017-02-23
SRO’s BoP settings are already used for individual races in the region, such as the Motul Sepang 12 Hours, and for GT3 cars competing in Japan’s Super GT series and the Australian GT Championship. But 2017 will be the first time they’ll govern a pan-continental Asian GT3/GT4 category.
Balancing performance ensures cars of all shapes and sizes compete equally. But how does the process work, what sets SRO apart from others, and why does it matter so much to modern-day customer GT racing? Here, Blancpain GT Series Asia’s promoter reveals some of the history and secrets behind the science.
Background: the birth of GT3 and BoP SRO Motorsports Group has run and promoted domestic, regional and world GT championships and series for the past 25 years. It is internationally recognised as the sport’s leading authority on both the GT3 and GT4 categories it originally created and continues to administer around the globe.
However, that expertise wasn’t gained overnight. Instead, it has been learnt the hard way during a quarter-century of competition. Throughout that time it has shaped modern-day GT racing, the cornerstone of which remains SRO’s Balance of Performance regulations.
“We created GT3 at the end of 2005 with the aim of developing customer GT racing using everything SRO and the FIA had learnt over the previous decade,” says SRO founder and CEO Stephane Ratel. “The GT1 and GT2 categories we promoted had their place at the time, but one-make championships organised by individual manufacturers were also popular.
“The key was bringing cars together in a way that would allow different models and engineering concepts to race equally in a cost-effective way without sparking a development war, which inevitably drives up the price of competing and deters customers. Manufacturers and teams never want to lose an advantage but they understood that we would have to level the playing field by balancing their cars in order to create stability and for the business model to work long-term.”
Cars contesting the FIA GT3 European Championship’s debut season in 2006 were very different to those now racing around the world in various GT3 series. But, crucially, manufacturers embraced the concept, and continue to do so 10 years on - now in GT4 as well as GT3 - thanks to the Balance of Performance regulations pioneered by SRO and the FIA.
2017-02-23